Oh, how bad am I that I haven't posted in a while!!! Anyway.

Only three of us at class this past Friday. I took a couple spills but none even remotely bad. Rink Buddy T, on the other hand, fell backward on a toe loop and whacked her head. she said she feels better now though. OW. We were a bit worried about her, obviously! She is also getting used to new blades, so, yeah! All mostly went as usual, though apparently I did one salchow that RB A said was awesome. Didn't feel awesome, but oh well.

Was back to the home rink on Sunday for the first time in a few weeks (other stuff to do on Sunday afternoon and being out of town kept me away). No rink buddies showed up there. But there were plenty of the usual little kids, several figure skater types, and a "class" with two young girls and instructor...it was another one of those "wow you're progressing way too fast" trainwreck things...went from waltz jumps to toe loops (which resembled drunken Mazurkas, lol) to loops (and I should mention that neither kid could hold a landing edge) to spins (okay, I'll admit it. There is nothing more disheartening than seeing little kids learning to "spin" and after a couple tries they can do it, and I don't know that I'll EVER be able to) to hydroplaning to Y spirals (on kids who couldn't do a Y on dry land holding onto a railing if their life depended on it). My favorite though was the guy there with his young daughter who asked me out in the lobby how one laces figure skates (must be the first time he's taken a girl skating), then on the ice asked how one stops in figure skates, and afterward thanked me for the tips and disclosed that he didn't know if you sharpen figure blades and had figured we skated on them dull. Really???? I wonder where things like this come from, lol.

I stuck to working on edges (dismal...in practice my edges aren't that bad like for spirals and landing jumps, but put me in the exercise for edges that I'd encounter on a test and I SUCK at it. Still am trying out figure out why I skid on edges sometimes in the past couple months. Coach has ruled out a skate problem, which I knew she would. So I guess it's just me. Seems to be worse when I skate edges on a straight leg), spins (awful as always), our exercise with 3-turns and mazurkas (improving slightly, but hard to practice in the small space of the center circle), and only jumps I worked on were salchow (seems a few turned out okay, or at least felt okay--that is, okay for me, not okay in general) and toe loop (sucks) as I currently work on those from standstill. Waltz jump I do from back crossovers and I am just not confident enough to do it in such a crowded rink...I don't trust that by the time I am ready to jump, I'll have a clear space to do so, so why frustrate myself by having to abort at least half my jumps? I'll save those for freestyle sessions.

I always thought they were sharpened like a knife on the bottom, I only recently learned they have 2 edges. It seems to be a common misconception. I was relieved though that if someone skates over my fingers, they probably won't be cut off.

Don't be so sure about that.... seriously. If you look at your blades, you'll see that in reality, you have not one knife edge, but two.

We have one girl at my rink that has a camel spin that is soooo fast, I tease her that her spin is a "whirling Ginzu spin" (after the ginzu knives often seen advertised on tv).....her blades are at neck level and get to close and THWACK....you could lose your head

Seriously, be careful wiping off your blades, as you can cut yourself (I know this for sure).

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Skate@Delaware
Ah, show skating!!! I do it for the glitter!

That actually happened at my rink. A girl on a public session fell, hands on the ice, and a guy coming along behind her in nicely sharpened hockey skates went over her little finger. The girl and the finger went to the hospital together for re-attachment surgery. This is why hockey players are taught to get up with no hands on the ice! Then there's Brian Joubert's recent injury, which I think is speaks to both the sharpness of figure blades and the force of landing a triple.

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Well yes, obviously they are still very dangerous, and anything could happen. But it's a lot less scary than when I thought they were more like machetes. A friend laughed at me because I work with dangerous machines all day at work but I was more concerned about losing my fingers to skates. I will just try my best to keep my hands off the ice.

I have gone through many a pair of gloves that way LOL

Is there some way to get measured by an actual Jackson company representative? I know Harlick and SP Teri always have people traveling and doing fittings at rinks across the country. I would think that if someone from Jackson fits you, they would be obligated to let you return the boots if they don't fit, KWIM?

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"You don't have to put an age limit on your dreams." - Dara Torres, 41, after her 2nd medal at the 2008 Olympics

I kinda used to feel that way about hockey skates...I thought the blades were really narrow and sharp!

Festive: Well, my new trainer at my new gym has joined my coach in trying to kill me! She had me do mostly upper body work, which of course being a skater, I'm very weak on! She's also going to help re-balance my legs as my quads are WAY overdeveloped and my gluts/hamstrings are very underdeveloped. (now how could that have happened??!)

Fusty: Friday in my lesson my right knee felt very "off"; not painful really, but just not right & my skating reflected it. Saturday while teaching it was still way "off" and was actually moving into the realm of pain, so I took Sun/Mon off from practicing. So back on the ice tomorrow, and crossing fingers that it's resolved itself!!!

phoenix re: conspiracy: Welcome to MY world!!! My trainer and two skating coaches are ALWAYS trying to kill me!!! And I come back for MORE too. DANG AOSS!!! (Seriously, I'm thankful b/c I'm now justified for buying more crap from LLBean!!! I've been eyeing the deluxe rolling backpacks! Or maybe it's time for me to go "sk8er grrrl" and get a Zuca!!! )

Festive:
Worked on a move I haven't worked on in a while... forward perimeter crossovers move!!! Needs tweeking but looked much better towards the end.

Festy:
Forward power pulls! Today, my primary coach is working on my getting more knee bend. Apparently based on this dialog, I'm not doing it right:

Coach: Okay does your quads hurt?
Me: Slightly tired but no, it doesn't hurt, why?
Coach: Then you don't have enough knee bend. Your quads are supposed to be SCREAMING!!! Do them again... with MORE knee bend!!!

I've had glimpses of glory towards the end though. I did hear some RIPPING sounds and it's definitely from towards the back of the blade!

Have to miss lesson with secondary coach this week. I have work and life obligations to take care of, so I couldn't take a lesson with her on our normal day and time. She forgot that she doesn't come on Tuesday mornings anymore. Should NOT have scheduled her lesson for this morning with me.

And to add humor to the Festy section, it's COLDER outside than inside and I live in "sunny California." It's now tettering around the freezing mark and we've had incidence of black ice this morning!!! It's actually WARMER in the rink than the outside!!!

The only "Festive" part of this whole weather thing (and those of you who live in the NYC/NJ area will agree) it's good preparation for me to get used to the weather when I come visiting Christmas time!!!

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Cheers,
jazzpants

11-04-2006: Shredded "Pre-Bronze FS for Life" Club Membership card!!!
Silver Moves is the next "Mission Impossible"
(Dare I try for Championship Adult Gold someday???)

Thank you for the support, you guys!!!

Sorry for not posting for a while. I was caught up in many things this past week. I now have lessons two days in a row, thur and fri afternoons

Thursday

Fusty

Coach taught me alternate outside and inside 3 turns. I had a tendency to push towards my toe pick. Might be a result of me skating 3 times during my recent visit to London recently, in their outdoor rink, using hired skates. Felt slightly weird when I first went on the ice, but after about 3 mins, the problem resolved itself.

Was still on jet lag. Told the skating school that I only came back from London the Wednesday before, but they still booked me in for a lesson for Thursday. Luckily, I only fell once whilst practising a sit spin.

Spins were not that centred, just leaned body backwards too much. Seemed to sort that out when my coach told me to do a few last spins.

Umm, coach suddenly realised that I should have learnt a half loop before a loop. Felt weird doing the jump.

A lot of school children due to the 1 month vacation in Singapore. One of the ice marshalls told me to practise my jumps in the middle. A coach told me to be extra careful, as his student was right behind my back, was doing a camel spin, and did not want his student to chop my head off.

Backspin still sucks, though the speed was there.

Festive
Crossovers consistent.
Alternating 3 turns stronger on the right than the left.
For my change foot spins, the first two spins were nice.
Jumps were not too bad. Did toe loop, salchow and half flip.

Friday

Fusty
Still something wrong with my forward spins, trying to sort out what the problem was.
Backspin still sucks.
Getting the feel of a half loop, though still felt weird.
Needed to remember the pulling in and arms action for my salchow and toe loop.

Festive
Did forward crossovers, they seemed to be more consistent now.
Did alternating 3 turns with dips on both toes. Finally got it in the end.
Backward inside 3 turns better than backward outside 3s.
Did half flip with pulling in arms action. Coach said that I improved my height in that jump drastically. I considered that the greatest achievement of my skating of that week, given that I was still on jet lag.
My coach e-mailed me and all her other students about ISI testing at 22nd of this month. I do not want to give myself too much pressure, so did not ask my coach to sign me on. Maybe will test in another few months or so.

Non skating related, I gave the rainbow lollipops which I brought back from an old sweete shop, to my 7 or 8 year old skating friend. She brought the lollipop and showed it to me, coz I gave the lollipops to her dad, and the little girl seemed to be super happy.

londonicechamp

Shouldn't someone start a new thread, considering that it is now another week?

New thread is here: http://www.skatingforums.com/showthread.php?t=30214

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Hi Isk8NYC

Thanks.

I should post something in the new thread too, after my lesson and practice today and tomorrow, as I now have lessons two days in a row.

londonicechamp